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December 19-25, 2002 cityspace Transformers
Some Philly 'hoods aren't taking blight lying down. If blight were an explosion, eastern North Philadelphia would be Ground Zero. Nearly half the buildings are abandoned, and the social statistics are grim: The median income in the neighborhood is only $11,000, and three-quarters of the residents haven't finished high school. But as a friend and I drove east from Temple's campus on a late fall Sunday, we noticed signs of renewal. Yes, there are illegal billboards, boarded-up homes, and decaying blocks, but there's also a large, brightly lit supermarket at Fifth and Berks -- the kind of store you don't expect to see in this part of the city. A whole block is newly built, with colorful hacienda-style detailing. Around the corner, the residents have fixed up their rowhouses with spiffy paint jobs. Even a couple of abandoned houses in the row are painted, avoiding the gap-toothed look so common to the city. There are bright murals on walls, and flowers growing in community gardens. The Asociación de Puertorriqueños en Marcha (Association of Puerto Ricans on the March, known as APM) is a well-established social service organization that has been doing real estate development in this neighborhood for more than 10 years. The results are visible. The spruced-up rowhouses? APM gave neighbors options for color and style, and paid for the fix-ups. The supermarket is one of the cleanest and brightest in the city, and draws people in from all over North Philly. The new housing has attracted residents and increased the income mix in the neighborhood. APM has made sure it lends a hand to current residents, too. Thirteen of the homes in their new development are earmarked for sale to neighborhood homeowners who want to "move up," and APM has gotten the city to help out with grants usually restricted to first-time home-buyers. Rose Gray, APM's director of housing, is particularly proud that her work has increased neighbors' property values. "We've helped the neighborhood to build assets," says Gray. "As values in the neighborhood increase, we're putting equity in the hands of people who haven't had it before." Property values near APM's apartments and houses have increased by $13,000 in the last few years, and APM has seen a $20,000 increase in the market value of the new homes they are building. After one last swing along North Seventh Street, we head over to Frankford to look at the blight fight from another angle. Frankford is one of the oldest neighborhoods in the city: It was founded in the 17th century as an independent community on Frankford Creek. (Philadelphia annexed it in the 1800s.) Robin Hynicka, director of Frankford Group Ministries, says this history accounts for Frankford's "incredible, positive sense of place," calling Frankford "a classic Philadelphia neighborhood." Today, Frankford's defined by the El tracks, which connect it to Center City but also choke traffic and discourage shoppers on Frankford Avenue. Frankford's modern challenges are summed up in one statistic: From 1984 to 2000, abandonment increased more quickly in Frankford than in almost any other city neighborhood. Frankford residents saw that they risked becoming the next circle in an expanding ring of blight. Local leaders reacted quickly, founding a community development corporation and tackling the problem head-on. In the late '90s, the Frankford Community Development Corporation began rehabbing the abandoned houses and selling them to new owners. Now the number of vacant buildings is decreasing. Like APM, Frankford CDC's hard work is paying off in rising property values. In 1995, the CDC's first homes sold for $37,500. Today the homes in its fourth development have planned sale prices of $75,000. All of the houses have sold to low-income people, most from the neighborhood. In a lot of ways Frankford and eastern North Philadelphia couldn't be more different. One is a solid working-class neighborhood, threatened by blight but mostly intact. The other is reeling from 50 years of disinvestment and abandonment. Could the fact that both neighborhoods are succeeding in pushing back blight lead to a general recipe? In both neighborhoods, the keys to success have been dedication, long-term commitment and a comprehensive attack on neighborhood problems. Both groups do much more than build houses. APM helped homeowners fix up their streets, planted community gardens and brought in a supermarket. Frankford CDC's work on Frankford Avenue -- rehabbing vacant stores and running a special service district, among other programs -- has increased occupancy by a third in the past six years. Both groups provide a wide array of social services to hundreds of neighborhood residents. Mayor John Street's Neighborhood Transformation Initiative (NTI) places great emphasis on increasing property values and stimulating real estate markets. But NTI hasn't outlined a plan to make it happen once abandoned houses are bulldozed, or committed the resources needed. To the extent that NTI has a blueprint to restore neighborhoods, it's a housing-only strategy, instead of the comprehensive approach that's working in Frankford and eastern North Philadelphia. In fact, the mayor has paid surprisingly little attention to success stories right in his backyard. Philadelphia's neighborhood success stories show that real neighborhood transformation is much more labor-intensive than the "clear it and they will come" approach NTI seems to suggest. Neighborhood transformation is happening in Frankford and eastern North Philly. Let's hope the city can learn from their success. Sue Sierra is the policy coordinator for the Philadelphia Association of Community Development Corporations, whose 80 members work to rebuild neighborhoods across Philadelphia. 
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